Monastic Guest – Stephen Feryus

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Phone: (843) 761-8509

Visitors are welcome at Mepkin Abbey, which is privately owned and is home for Trappist monks. Living according to the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks offer hospitality to strangers. At Mepkin, that means that the abbey’s gardens are open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Reception Center/Gift Shop is open Tuesday – Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (closed on Mondays); guided tours to the Abbey Church are offered Tuesday through Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. (See details below) To maintain their lives of prayer, silence, privacy and solitude, the monks have a few important requests of all visitors:

• Upon arrival, please check in at the Reception Center/Gift Shop.

• Read and abide by all signs.

• Only two roads are open to the public: the main road which runs from the entrance to the public gardens, and the road which leads to the Reception Center & Store. Please stay on these two roads.

• Dogs must be on leashes at all times. (Please pick up after your dog.)

• Access to the Abbey church is by guided tour only. This access is limited because the church is in the monastic enclosure, the heart of the monastery.

• No professional photography allowed.

Tours

Guided tours to the Abbey Church are 11:30 AM and 3:00 PM Tuesdays to Saturdays. Tours are $5 per person (children and students free) which includes a guidebook of either the Gardens or the Monastery. (Note: The guided church tours include a walk from the Reception Center to the Abbey Church, a distance of about a quarter of a mile.) Reservations required for groups of 10 or more.

Visitors may enjoy the public gardens at their leisure.

Reception Center/Gift Shop

Once a month, on a Friday, the monks have a day of total silence and solitude. They call these the “Desert Days” and no tours of the monastery are given on these days. However, the Reception Center/Gift Shop and the gardens are open.

Upcoming Desert Days:

January 11
February 8
March 15
April 12
May 3
June 7
July 5
August 2
September 6
October 4
November 8
December 20

Mepkin Affiliate Program

“You wouldn’t believe if I told you, Stephen, just how much you can come to mean to someone’s spiritual life and not even realize it.”

Br. Anthony-Maria continued and told a few stories of guests and retreatants who had gotten in touch with the monastery to tell of how seemingly insignificant acts on his or someone else’s part had come to deeply affect their lives while so many miles away from the cloistered walls of Mepkin. And the more I think about it, the more I agree with the many guests who have been affected by this place and these people, and I’ve also come to agree with Br. Anthony’s awe. On the one hand, one’s acts in the monastery are menial and mundane, these are only ordinary people. Yet on the other hand, those same trivial acts can contain the deepest spiritual significance: a haircut, time in church, a conversation had, or a note shared. And I think that’s the point for these Trappists, if I may speak a few words on their behalf.

For the past two summers, I have the joy of being able to say I’ve spent four months at Mepkin in their Monastic Guest Program. And finding the Divine in the ordinary is the crux of the many lessons Mepkin holds in store, and as Br. Anthony said, it can be hard to believe at times. Do you want to learn something of God? Report to the Grading House after Terce and help Fr. Jonas with the shiitake mushrooms… What about growing in prayer and charity? Well, Br. Vincent needs some help changing out lightbulbs…
The significance of Mepkin can be that simple and that complex at the same time. Sure, waking at 3 a.m. is never the most cheerful proposition, but done in community, you see what solidarity and a lifestyle of prayer look like in the most interdependent and beautifully human of ways. Being in the different context of the cloister helps you to see the ways we often miss that in the normal routine of life. Such a frenetic pace outside can work too well at insulating us from our very selves and the tangible silence of the cloister helps to remove those unnecessary distractions. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy all the time, but rather, the liberation of discipline aids in stripping us down to our rawness before the Divine. The reward is in that difficulty and hardship.

The wonderful hospitality of Mepkin and their common life has not only taught me that, but it has been demonstrated before my very eyes as they have allowed me to partake of it for a time. Working, living, and praying alongside of the brothers while in the Monastic Guest Program has me proclaiming just how much they have come to mean to my spiritual life (and all my life for that matter) and it has me grateful that I can participate in their ministry in the Lowcountry of South Carolina at a place called Mepkin.

Stephen

Vocation Thought for the Day

“… and they dropped their nets and followed Jesus.” What have I allowed to keep me from following the Lord’s call?